Oil, the rising economy sinker. When the economy is bad, oil is priced lower, when the economy starts to heat up, oil prices go up.

Oil prices generally go lower when the economy goes bad. Oil prices seem to increase at the first sign of any economic activity, thus squashing any real economic momentum.

Even if the economy is able to survive higher oil prices, some of the additional oil profits that are created from higher oil prices may be being used to simply seed the worlds stock markets to artifical highs, before they crash again.

Gotta get the alternative energy products humping so we can get out of this lose, lose paradigm.

The Media, Banks, and the U.S. government are either slow to figure out an economic solution, or they have a master plan to keep us Fearful.

Solution 101. If I could wave a magic wand and do one thing for the economy, it would be to allow for an immediate implementation of a full income tax deduction for both renters and property owners.

"Preposterous", the wall street muckety mucks would say, "that is double dipping"! Lol, and just what does the government do every second of every day when it comes to taxation, they double and triple and quadruple dip. The government taxes money coming and going, every which way they can.

Hospitalization costs (including insurance premiums), monthly apartment rental costs and monthly mortgage payments should ALL be completely deducted from a person's income prior to calculating income tax, and the income tax tables WOULD NOT be adjusted to anticipate this real deduction.

Is the government being honest, or is the government trying to trick us by blaming the economy on higher fuel prices and the sub prime mortgage fiasco?

The reason I ask is, if the average consumer is paying $2,500 dollars a year in all kinds of interest & finance charges, and considerably more than that in all kinds of state and federal taxes, why would paying an extra $600 dollars a year on gasoline be destroying the economy?

Wouldn't it make more sense to "re-evaluate" just what kind of interest and finance charges are being charged on the consumer, rather than blaming the economy on the price of oil?

Wouldn't it also make more sense to re-evaluate the fairness of state and federal taxation as well when it comes to assessing taxes on the place we call home, be it rental or otherwise?

If the government wants to blame the economy on the sub prime mortgage debacle, why not acknowledge that peoples' desire to own their own living space for just a few hundred more dollars a month than renting was too good to pass up! Once the home interest deduction was added in, it may actually have cost less to own a home then rent from someone else!

The government needs to make it economically sensible to pay rent or the economic instability that is taking over will continue. Some people may choose to own a home and have less money in the bank as a result, others may choose to pay rent and with the money they save per month, actually have a savings account. Both living methods should be equally honored by the government. As it stands, renters are being discriminated against.

If this idea were to be implemented, it is possible that those who rent properties may raise their rates because they know that their tenants will now be getting income tax deductions. However, that would just be ethically wrong.

Once the renters deduction is incorporated into the income tax code, the government could set up an escalating tax on a building owner to prevent the owner from overcharging.

These steps would allow all people to take a huge, deep breath, one that they deserve. People are entitled to reasonable deductions, whether they are home owners, renters or have serious medical issues.

The Price of Gasoline Doesn't Matter.

The Price of Gasoline Doesn't Matter. Well, actually, the price of gasoline shouldn't matter. If you drive a car that gets 20 miles per gallon, and pay 2.00 dollars per gallon, your cost per gallon of gasoline is no different than if you drive a car that gets 50 miles per gallon and you are paying 5 dollars per gallon.

The problem has been in the lethargy with which our own economy, marketing, and personal preferences cause the increase in miles per gallon technology to barely increase over the past 20-30 years. New potential gas saving advancements are instead put into faster acceleration or more internal comfort for the passengers such as more 12 volt outputs to power television screens, improve air conditioning, add a better speaker system, keep the car more plush, or just larger and heavier than is necessary.

Just what is happening to the gasoline profits? Think about that for a moment. In a free market universe it's none of our business what the petroleum profiteer does. But what if the oil profiteer decided to make millions of hummers, sell them at a discount, and even offer 3 dollars off on a gallon of gas to every buyer of a hummer? While the odds are that won't happen, there are signs of it with these gas for only 2.99 guarantee offers if you basically buy a new gas guzzling car.

Could the argument be made that we no longer have a "free market society" if the amount of petroleum required for the planet's economy to run is more than can be supplied? Under those conditions, aren't urgent maneuvers the order of the day?

Not if you believe in let the market decide. At some point, the price of gas will become so high that other technologies will be developed. so just let the market decide. But there is a problem with that line of thinking.

If the oil profiteers choose to ignore the development of alternative energy technologies, they actually obstruct it's development. The obstruction comes in the form of purchasing existing, inefficient products that actually increase oil consumption! Anything short of investing ALL of the excess petroleum profits in alternative renewable energy products generated in one form or another by the sun, may be too little too late.

I believe we are in an "either you support alternative energy technologies, or you are against alternative energy technologies" mode, there is no in between. Fighting in Iraq to ensure stability so oil flows becomes a moot point if we don't accelerate our own fight for alternative energy development at a fater rate, especially when the amount of oil the military is using just to stay in Iraq is factored in.